In a current gaming machine cabinet or housing, there are two types of gaming machines from the viewpoint of the gaming machine cabinet structures. One of them is a gaming machine configuration, which is referred to as “an upright” or “an arcade” configuration, and the other gaming machine configuration is a gaming machine, which is referred to as “a slant top” configuration.
The upright gaming machine is generally tall and narrow structure as disclosed by The United States Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0224776 to Nagano, which teaches the “upright” or “arcade” configurations of the gaming machine.
The other gaming machine configuration is referred to as a “slant top” as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,532B1 to Tode et al and The United States Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0026702 to Cole. Typically, theses gaming machines include a top display portion, and it has a sloping or slanted section where input buttons are located.
In both types of gaming machines, there are commonly two drawbacks. One of them is that that once the gaming machine is manufactured, it is difficult change the configuration of the gaming machine. For example, in case when adding one more display to the gaming machine, it was necessary to remove the side panels and the front panel of the gaming machine to add one more display to the gaming machine and to replace at lease the side panels and the front panel. The other drawback is the size of the gaming machine. Particularly, in the case of slant top configuration, the depth of the gaming machine is relatively longer than that of the upright structure gaming machine. Thus, the number of gaming machines placed on the casino floor has been limited.
In order to solve the problems, U.S. Pat. No. 6,820,875 to Hedrick et al discloses a modular cabinets and replaceable laminate panel for a gaming device and a monitor cover removably connected to the display cabinet. However, it is still difficult to add an additional display device to change the configuration of the gaming machine.
Further, in recent years, flat panel display devices such as LCD (Liquid Crystal Device) panels and PDP (Plasma Display Panel) are available in a marketplace with relatively less expensive. As a result of this trend, the depth of the gaming machine has been shortened relative to the prior gaming machine based using CRT (Cathode Ray Tube).
However, prior art has not taken full advantages of these devices into the gaming machines.
An object of the present invention is to provide a gaming having a modular structure capable of being flexibly configured. The other object of the present invention is to provide a gaming machine having an ergonomic structure suitable for players of the gaming machines.